For thousands of people heading to the University of Denver on October 3 for the historic showdown between presidential contenders Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the trip to the debate will begin with a ride on the bus.

Or the train. Or the B-cycle.

With as many as 12,000 people expected to crowd onto the university campus for the first presidential debate ever held in the Rocky Mountain region, DU officials announced Wednesday they estimate they will have only 700 parking spaces available for the general public coming to DU to participate in the festivities surrounding the debate.

People with tickets to watch the rhetorical rumble inside Magness Arena are guaranteed parking spaces on campus, said Buddy Knox, DU’s parking manager. Debate staffers, security personnel, media members and DU students who live on campus are guaranteed the rest of the 4,300 spaces allotted for the debate, Knox said.

That leaves only 700 out of the university’s 5,000 parking spaces available for people coming to the university’s DebateFest event, an interactive festival featuring live music, food trucks, demonstrations, candidate appearances and issues booths. DebateFest culminates with an outdoor screening of the debate.

While tickets to watch the debate inside Magness Arena are not open to the general public, tickets to DebateFest are — though DU students and staff have first crack. University officials expect as many as 5,000 people to attend, hence the parking crunch.

“The bottom line is, there will not be parking for the majority of people who want to come,” Knox said.

Instead, DU officials are encouraging attendees to take the bus or light rail or ride their bikes.

Christine Downs, a spokeswoman for Denver’s Public Works department, said people who choose to park on the street in the surrounding neighborhood should be mindful of parking restrictions.

Scott Reed, a Regional Transportation District spokesman, said buses will run as close to campus as security perimeters allow. The DU light rail stop is currently scheduled to be open, Reed said. But, if it closes because of security concerns, RTD will provide buses to the campus from nearby stops.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold

More in News

A wedding and special events’ planning business has agreed to pay a $200,000 settlement to five employees living in the country illegally after allegedly failing to pay them minimum wages and overtime and discriminating against them because of their race.

The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.